American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed Public Law 111-5. The legislation, referred to as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provides to the Department of Transportation, among other things, $48.1 billion for infrastructure development. Of this amount, $1.1 billion is provided to FAA from the General Fund for airport-related purposes. While the funding is not subject to normal AIP authorization authority, the funding is to be administered under the requirements of Airport Improvement Program (AIP) discretionary funding.   For full details about ARRA, please visit  http://www.recovery.gov/ .

2009 Merrill Field AIP Projects funded by ARRA as certified by MOA Manager are:

  1. Rehabilitate Aircraft Apron (Block 5, Phase 5) - $766,000

This project includes Phase-5 of multi-phased apron rehabilitation of Block-5 apron bounded by Taxiway Quebec to the south, Taxiway Golf to the east, and Merrill Field Drive to the north. The apron is situated over the closed landfill and is settling to various degrees developing four or more feet of differential settlement over a 5 to 7-year period. This has created substantial drainage problems, and rendered most of the apron unusable. The apron reconstruction would provide for this area to become fully usable again in a safe condition for aircraft ground movements accessing the runways and the hospital for Medevac aircraft.

  1. Rehabilitate Aircraft Apron (Charlie South) -    $1,100,000

This project involves the reconstruction of the existing gravel aircraft apron located over the closed solid waste landfill. The differential settlement has created substantial drainage problems and rendered most of the apron unusable. This apron is situated east of Runway 16-34 and south of Runway 7-25. This rehabilitation work involves the removal of the gravel surface and replace by a new asphalt pavement thus providing a safe surface condition for aircraft ground movements accessing the runways.

Anticipated construction schedule – June, 2009 until October, 2009.